A friend of mine just sent me a link to your site, and your Fall Style Book in particular, and I just needed to write this to thank you. As my readers have noticed I have been suffering a bit of a crisis of self-doubt these past few months. Things had really kind of turned south and I doubted where I was going and if there was indeed a place for me here in the fabric world.

Now, I have no delusions. I am guessing that my old fabric company was discounting left-over Asbury because they couldn’t manage to sell it, so I have no doubt that it being cheap played into the fact that it is all over your new catalogue. I loved that you used the soft-serv print over the summer, but the fact that you are using four more must mean that it did well for you. And that is something I needed to see right now.

I love the four dresses (one, two, three, & four) you did with prints from Asbury, and will be ordering one for my wife. I am especially glad that you saw what I saw in the spinner print; I only wish the yellow version had turned out as well as the cream version. But I digress…

With the way things ended with my old fabric company I had been doubting whether my work had any value in this industry, and whether I could have a future here. Don’t get me wrong; I have no doubts in my ability, my designs, or my scholarship. I had just begun to doubt whether this was the right place for me. And then I saw my fabric all over the place in the fall catalogue, transformed into just the sort of awesomeness I had hoped it would become.

So, thank you ModCloth. You reminded me that my work is indeed fucking awesome, at least in the right hands. Working within a sphere that often tries to shoe-horn everything into the conventional model can lead a designer to forget that. That reminder has come at just the right time, as I start writing and making the quilts for what will (yes, it will) become my second book.

And for all of my ex-students out there, let this serve to show that even I forget my own advice: good work will win, even if it doesn’t happen right away. And my correlate to that: be right, and fuck everything else. Now, it’s time to get back into the sewing room and return to kicking some proverbial ass. Once this first book comes out in March it will be time to go find myself a new fabric company; I have a few new (and awesome) collections that are just itching to get out into the wild, and maybe find their way over to ModCloth too…

Hi Thomas: Missed seeing your ‘stuff’ on FB this week. Glad to share your excitement in seeing your lovely fabric made up into such great garments!!! You do deserve a pat on the back.
Bye the bye, a great man like you doesn’t need acclaim to give you your worth! You’re a fab Dad, a good person, creative, kind and giving–isn’t that enough?! Plus you have friends (even tho’ very distant) who appreciate you and your life struggles and accomplishments. I’d say you are a Hero (at least in my eyes.) PS I’m a 71 year youngish-older grandma,not a groupie. God bless and love from Canada

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Teaching…

I am indeed available for workshops, lectures, and trunk shows. Because my workshops focus on helping quilters design their own quilts rather than particular patterns or techniques they can be quite intensive and involve a good deal of individual discussion and exploration. As such, I am only booking workshops of at least two days...

For more information, please send me an email: thomas@thomasknauersews.com